Chapter 8 - Conduct
of proceedings
Notice
Paper
On each sitting day a Notice Paper is issued showing all outstanding
business on the Senate’s agenda. There is no Notice Paper for the first sitting
day of a new session, as the business before the Senate lapses on the previous
day: see Chapter 7, Meetings of the Senate, under Meetings after prorogation or
dissolution of House. The full Notice Paper appears on the Internet and an abbreviated
version is issued in printed form.
In principle the business set out on the Notice Paper may be transacted
on the day for which it is listed, which is usually the sitting day for which
the Notice Paper is issued, and in the order indicated on the Notice Paper.
Usually, however, the Senate has before it more business, particularly business
initiated by senators who are not ministers, than can possibly be transacted
over a session, and only a fraction of the business on the Notice Paper is reached
on any sitting day. Business not reached remains on the Notice Paper for the
next day of sitting and for each successive day until it is disposed of (SO 80(2), 97(2)).
The Notice Paper shows the order in which the listed business should be
transacted, in accordance with the rules relating to the order of business set
out in standing orders.
Ministers, however,
may arrange the order of items of government business
on the
Notice Paper, which usually consist of government bills, in the order they
choose (SO 65). This provision
is used by the government to rearrange the order of government business from
day to day, so that government business does not appear on the Notice Paper in
the same order from day to day.
It is also open to the Senate to rearrange the order of business (see
under Rearrangement of business, below), and therefore the Notice Paper does
not necessarily indicate the order in which business will be transacted.
Because of this, another, briefer document, the Order of Business,
or Senate “Red”, is
issued on each sitting day, showing the business which it is intended to deal
with on that day and the order in which it is expected that business will be
transacted. Even this document, however, is not an infallible guide, because
some business may not be reached and the order of business may be rearranged
during the day. (For further information on procedural publications, see
Chapter 3, Publication of Proceedings.)
Although the Senate begins a new session after a prorogation with an empty
Notice Paper, business which has lapsed because of a prorogation may be
restored to the Notice Paper by motion on notice, and consideration of that
business resumed where it was left off. It is the practice to restore such
items of business to the Notice Paper at the beginning of each session. (See
also Chapter 12, Legislation, under Revival of bills.)
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